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SALINAS, California: Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, sold his 14-year-old daughter into marriage for $16,000, beer and meat. It was a marriage and dowry contract negotiated between Martinez and the family of Margarito de Jesus Galindo.

The child and Galindo lived together for a week before Martinez complained to the police because the negotiated payment was never made. Now it is Martinez who faces up to a year in jail followed by deportation for child endangerment.

Response: Another case where immigrant cultural practices are at odds with the culture and the laws of the USA. Such arrangements are said to be common in the villages of Oaxaca, Mexico where these families came from. It is interesting that Martinez actually expected the police to resolve the dispute.

My question is this–why wasn’t Galindo arrested for statutory rape? He certainly could have been according to California state law.

Also, I don’t know what these folks were thinking, perhaps I don’t want to really know, after all a 14 year-old cannot be legally married in the state of California (well it is sort of possible, but a minor must appear before a Superior Court judge with a good reason along with a parent and a counselor to receive legal permission).

Despite a ‘marriage’ contract that might be accepted in Qaxaca, it could never be legal here. Obviously they weren’t really concerned about complying with the laws of this state.

There are millions of immigrants in California, one wonders how many cases like this never come to light.